Back when the USAF used the Martin-Baker ejection seat, flight crews didn't have utmost confidence in it: It was known as the "Martin-Baker widow maker."posted by pax digita at 7:36 AM on August 28, 2006

Way cool. I love the underwater ejection story. And the self sacrifice of test pilots like John Paul Stapp is inspiring. Thanks cenexo.posted by Popular Ethics at 7:37 AM on August 28, 2006

Wow, thanks a lot for that great post. I still have a few more links to read, but as an avid aviation enthusiast, these are all really interesting!posted by kurmbox at 9:27 AM on August 28, 2006

Fantastic post. Thanks.posted by chris24 at 9:30 AM on August 28, 2006

Speaking of building the confidence of the crew, a helicopter ejection seat might seem like an inverted Cuisinart. However, the Russian Kamov KA-50 'Black Shark' and KA-52 'Alligator' attack helicopters are equipped with ZvezdaK-37 extraction systems. The copter's rotors are first blown away by explosive charges, then a tractor rocket pulls the the seat out — more details here[bottom of page].posted by cenoxo at 10:31 AM on August 28, 2006

First of all, fantastic post. I particularly liked the link about the Gemini ejection system, I had no idea.

Incidentally, I was present at the incident shown in the second link (two Mig-29s colliding). It was at an airshow at RAF Fairford in 1993 - my parents had taken me there for my 13th birthday. When the two planes clipped, there was a second or two where the crowd wondered whether it was part of the display. Then the sight (then sound) of an explosion. It was very odd hearing the collective "huh" - best word I can find to describe the shocked noise the crowd made. Then we saw one chute bloom, then just afterwards another. I remember handing in my camera film to the organisers for the incident investigation that followed, then feeling extremely flat and depressed, even though by that stage it was clear both pilots had survived. It has stuck in the mind as a birthday to remember, though.posted by greycap at 10:38 AM on August 28, 2006

Great post, cenoxo. Very interesting stuff.posted by CodeBaloo at 10:45 AM on August 28, 2006

Thanks cenoxo, excellent stuff to be had here.posted by econous at 11:04 AM on August 28, 2006

I like this ejector seat story from The Right Stuff:

Then you had men like Dave Scott and Mike Adams, who were two of Yeager's ARPS students. They were practicing low lift-over-drag landings one day in an F-104. In this maneuver, which simulated an X-15 landing, you gunned the afterburner for speed (and stability) and flared the flaps and tried to grease the ship onto the runway at 200 knots. As Scott and Adams neared the ground, the "eyelids" on the afterburner malfunctioned, opening too wide, cutting the thrust down to 20 or 30 percent of maximum. Visually they could tell that the ship was sinking too fast. Scott, who had the controls, gunned it but got very little response. They were dropping like a brick. Adams, in back, knew that the tail would hit the runway first, due to the angle of attack they were in, if Scott couldn't regain power. He told Scott over the radio circuit that if they tail hit he was ejecting. The tail hit, and in that moment he pulled his cinch ring and ejected at zero altitude. Scott elected to stay with the ship. The belly smashed onto the runway and the ship went careening down it and off into the mesquite. When the beast finally came to a stop, Scott looked back, and the engine was jammed up into the space where Adams used to be. Both men had made the right decision. Adams had been exploded up into the air and had come down safely by parachute. Scott's ejection mechanism had been broken in the torque of the initial impact and he would have been killed had he pulled the cinch ring, either by the nitroglycerine explosion or by a partial ejection.

Yeager was tremendously impressed by these two decisions by two men in the very mouth of the Gulp. There you had it, with the ante doubled: the right stuff.

Mike Adams was killed in a 1967 X-15 accident. Adams was the first American astronaut to die during a space mission. He was posthumously awarded astronaut wings (for flying 50 miles above the Earth's surface on his final flight).

It amazes me that inside the complicated machine of jet aircraft lays yet another quite complicated (at least more than I knew) machine designed solely to get the pilot out of said machine.

Beyond military, looks like they were thinking about using them for air racing a few years back...posted by SoFlo1 at 5:19 PM on August 28, 2006

Years ago I read a Reader's Digest story about a guy who ejected in the middle of a thunderstorm and ended up parachuting like, 5 states away. Anyone remember that, or have a link? I can't seem to dig it up.posted by drinkcoffee at 5:37 PM on August 28, 2006

drinkcoffee, I tried to find that same RD story for this fpp without success. The terrific updrafts and downdrafts within the storm system took the pilot on a long roller coaster ride, and kept him aloft long after he ejected. Still looking...posted by cenoxo at 12:09 AM on August 29, 2006

In reality, the crash happened on May 10, 1967, at Edwards AFB. Pilot Bruce Peterson was making the plane's 16th unpowered flight when he encountered a Pilot-Induced Oscillation (PIO) which cased the M2-F2 to roll wildly from side-to-side. The PIO had been encountered by Milt Thompson during the first flight, and intentionally researched on two other flights. The M2-F2 was turning out to be the least-stable of all the Lifting Bodies. So this was not an entirely unexpected situation for Bruce Peterson. He recovered, but was distracted by a rescue helicopter that strayed too close, and delayed just a split second or so before lowering the landing gear.

The M2-F2 hit the ground with the gear only partially down, and flipped six times, coming to rest upside-down. Two men pulled Bruce from the wreckage (that's his helmet on the ground just in front of the nose), and he was severely injured. He was flown to UCLA Medical Center. Peterson had a long road to recovery but nonetheless lived to fly again, despite losing vision in his right eye due to a staph infection. As for the M2-F2, it was taken back to the Northrop plant in Hawthorne, CA, rebuilt (for $700,000) and redesignated the M2-F3. Meanwhile, while the M2-F3 was laid up at the plant, the HL-10 and X-24A programs continued. In its original configuration, the M2-F2 made a total of 16 flights.

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